The Presidential Campaign: A Hobbesian Trap **

by Madeleine Kando

Ok, so now that the presdential campaign is almost over, I can look back on the entire process, which includes the primaries and see a steady, gloomy descent into the abyss of Hobbesian hell called the Hobbesian Trap.

The first Presidential debate on October 3rd, you know, the one in which Obama did so ‘poorly’, was the beginning of an ever accelerating slide into the fire of damnation. Obama was still under the illusion that debates are there to talk about ideas, policies and the like. Ha, how naïve, how childish. Romney set him straight on that one. He came out blazing, sword drawn, went for the jugular as soon as the clock started ticking.

Obama forgot to read up on Hobbes before he flew to Denver. He was unprepared. If you are not familiar with the term ‘Hobbesian Trap’, it is when you are afraid that I will hit you, so you hit me first, just to make sure you won’t get hurt. Now that you hit me, I have to defend myself by drawing a knife. But you defend yourself by pointing a gun. What if I wasn’t going to hit you to begin with? Doesn’t matter. We have both fallen into a Hobbesian trap, which is bad for both of us because we won’t have any energy left for anything else except defend ourselves.

After that debacle, Obama understood the importance of ‘deterrence’. Just like in the cold war ‘arms race’, he retaliated against Romney’s attack by pulling out his AK47. And from there they both on to their merry way to complete armament.

Like the majority of Americans, I am caught in the maelstrom, the shark frenzy. I have become mesmerized by the boxing match. I forgot all about the purpose of the debates and the winner-take all nature of the election process in America makes for excellent entertainment. It’s sad but that’s the way it is. At times I have to pinch myself and wonder: what’s the point? What happened to the debate?

** Hobbes was the social contract theorist who coined the expression of the “war of each against all,” a situation which would prevail among humans if it weren’t for government. He called it the Leviathan. In the state of nature, Hobbes said, human life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” leave comment here